The safest place in the world
by Little.Latina
Summary: She is home. She is in the safest place in the world, the safest place a human being could dream of or hope for. Spoilers up to 3x22.


What is going on right now or what will happen next, she doesn't care about. At this very moment, she couldn't care less. For an instant, just for a brief matter of seconds, she allows herself to forget about all American citizens, terrorist organizations, threats and viruses, Saunders and his men and the rest of the world that surrounds her. For a moment, just for a brief matter of seconds, she allows herself to take in what has just happened and where she is after all she had to go through during the course of such hellish day. And even if one could be more likely to find it impossible to believe, she feels a wave of bliss wash over her.

Of all the possible places in the horrible, harsh world we live in, she is in the safest one: the arms of her husband, where she knows nothing could ever and will ever harm her, where she knows nothing could ever and will ever cause her any damage because never in a million years would he stop protecting her with his own life if necessary. Never in a million years would he put anything above her wellbeing or leave her alone in her worst moment of weakness (she hates admitting weakness, she hates admitting defeat, but even the strongest persons meet their breaking point every now and then, and she is happy to have him there every time she does).

Never in a million years. Never in a million years would he let her down.

She is where she belongs to, where she has always wanted to be, where she will always want to be, a place destined for her and no one else to seek comfort in: his loving, caring embrace, where hunger and thirst are satisfied, where wars and dangers don't destroy people's hopes, where nightmares never haunt, where darkness becomes light, where all wishes made to starts come true, where the pain is nonexistence, where all wounds are licked and healed, where she can cry her eyes out knowing the tears will be dried off as he kisses her eyelids shut and rocks her to a peaceful sleep he will later wake her up from by parting her lips open with his and whispering into her mouth that is time for his princess to open her beautiful almond shaped eyes and get up.

Even after all the atrocious, horrifying stuff that has happened today, even after having seen all those beings die so painfully, even after having seen young lives and dreams be unexpectedly crashed and remain shattered on the floor of that cold hotel, even after having seen those nameless faces covered with blood gasping for a last breath of air before passing away, even after having been through Hell and back in less than twenty four hours, even with the enormous weight she is carrying on her sore shoulders, even with the tiredness making each one of her bones ache in ways she never thought possible, even with her heart pounding so hard her chest hurt each time it beat, even with that abdominal pain and those waves of nauseas she thinks are due to exhaustion and nervousness making her want to curl up in a ball and throw up, even with the fear still running through her veins, when she saw him standing there, just a few steps away, she had felt immediately better.

The moment the flood of bullets finally decreases, they look into each other's eyes, and the only thing that can be seen in them is the thing that matters the most, the thing that has always mattered the most: love.

And memories, memories of all the things that have been said between them during the course of the last three years assault them.

Love, love and memories.

Love mixed with devotion.

"_I will always be yours, yours and no one else's. I was born to be yours, yours and no one else's_"

Love mixed with purity.

"_You'll be my first and last, my one and only_"

Love mixed with surrender.

"_Promise me you'll never make me live without you. I don't know how I'd survive if I ever had to live without you, I don't think I remember how to live without you anymore. I forgot how to the moment we first touched that day at CTU when Mason introduced us and you shook my hand and said my name_"

Love mixed with the hope that – although they know it isn't – this is just a nightmare they will wake up from soon.

"_You're the first thing I see when I open my eyes as you kiss me good morning, and the last thing I want to see every night before I close them as you rock me to sleep. You're the only one who can wake me up from my nightmares and the only one who can make me feel better even after having had the worst of all possible days. As long as I have you, no nightmare is real and any bad day cannot get better_"

Love mixed with the worries they have had to cop with during the last hours.

"_All my baked in Hell days are worth living, because I know that at the end of each one I'll be rewarded with your kisses on my lips, your hands caressing my sore back and your voice sweetening my ears with words full of that beyond description sensation only you can awake on me_"

Love mixed with guilt for all the mistakes they made while trying to get it right.

"_Baby, we all make mistakes. Like when I tried cooking and I almost burnt the house down. We all make mistakes, sweetheart, but you gotta know that it doesn't matter how many times you screw up, it doesn't matter how many times you are wrong: mistakes aside, I love you. Mistakes and all, I love you. I will always, always love you. No mistake could make me stop loving you; I couldn't stop loving you even if I tried. The fact that you forgot our ninth month anniversary won't make me love you any less, baby. It's a mistake, just a simple mistake. I'll forget next Cubs game date, I will buy tickets for a chick flick that day and I'll drag you to the movie theatre with me saying I am sorry I forgot that that was the day Jack and you would watch the game together, and we'll be even, okay?_"

Love mixed with the remnants of the despair they saw and felt today.

"_Today, this mission took away the lives of a couple of hundred people. Today we worked thirty six hours straight, which is insane to the point of feeling as if my body were about to faint from emotional and physical exhaustion. Today we saw evil, we saw death, we saw our co-workers and friends get hurt and anger and all those horrible things no human being should witness… But the worst part, the worst part of this mission was you being out in the field. The worst part was staying at CTU trying to act cool and professional while the love of my life was out there, facing all those dangers… My mind was crossed by all kind of thoughts when Jack asked you to go with him. My mind was crossed by all kind of thoughts, from you being hurt to you not coming back to my arms at all. Baby, the despair I felt today, I don't know if it'll ever wear off. The despair I felt today, I still feel it, and I think I'll always feel it, for the rest of my life, for as long as I live. If I ever lost you, if you ever left and never come back…_"

Love mixed with relief, because they still are here, because they have survived.

"_One week ago, when it all happened…, you told me we'd survive that day and I believed in your words without a single drop of hesitation. You know why? Because it was written loud and clear in your eyes that you wanted it to be true, that you'd make everything in your power to keep that promise you had made me. You wanted us to survive that day because I think that somehow we both knew big changes were about to happen, big chances were about to be taken. I think we both knew somehow that as a result of the horrible events of that day we'd start the rest of our existences together_"

Love mixed with need, that basic need that has always lingered between them ever since they first met and became immediately attracted, not only physically but also emotionally, to each other.

"_I've never needed someone the way I need you. I've never needed someone this much. I need you so much it hurts sometimes; I need you so much it scares me sometimes. I need you so much I am starting to think I have developed some sort of dependency on you. But you know what? I don't care. I love needing you. It makes me feel whole, complete. Yes: needing you completes me. And getting to whisper these words to you every day fills holes I never thought would be filled. But needing you does fill them" _

There in their eyes there is love.

Love in all its shapes. Love in all its states.

"_This necklace is not only a birthday present, babe. It's not a simple, ordinary necklace. I would never give you something simple or ordinary. You know, when I went shopping for a present and saw this purple, heart shaped necklace I thought it was exactly what I wanted to give you for your birthday: this little heart represents my own heart, the heart I gave to you practically the second after we first met without even knowing that I was doing so. Baby, I'm not kidding when I swear you had me at hello. So, before the adorable way you're looking at me right now kills all my senses for good and pushes me to kiss you 'till dawn, I'm going to tell you what his necklace means: with this, I am just giving you my heart in the shape of something that can be touched and seen – because I have already given you my real hear so it can rest close to yours and feel its beats. So everyone can see that my heart is yours and only yours. It's yours to keep. Yours and no one else's_"

Love and need…

"_I love you, I need you, each day more and more and more… God, my princess, what have you done to me?_"

And guilt…

"_I would never, never hurt your on purpose, baby. And I am sorry if I ever did. I am sorry I hurt you. It kills me knowing that these tears that are falling from your beautiful eyes I caused. And each one of them I will kiss away, my princess, every single tear I'll kiss away…_"

And relief…

"_We did survive, you see? I told you we would, and we did. And the best, the best is yet to come. I promise. It's going to sound selfish, sweetheart, but I am happy that horrible day brought us together. Now you know how I feel, now I can hold you and sooth you and make all the pain go away. And that relieves me, because I know we'll both be safe as long as we have each other_"

And surrender…

"_I tried not to fall in love with you, but it happened without me even noticing. I tried not to get professional and personal mixed again, I had vowed myself that I wouldn't follow the same path that had led me to Nina. But now I see that you are different. Now I see that you were made for me, and I was made for you. I had to surrender to you, baby, because love became stronger. It was stop denying myself or dying from the pain it caused me not having you. I had to surrender_"

And hope…

"_Nina left me so wounded I thought I would never be able to open up to someone again in my life. She left me so wounded I thought I would never regain my capacity to trust in women or in any other human being for crying out loud. She left me so wounded I thought I would never fall in love with someone again. But you, you I see and I know what I had with Nina wasn't love; it wasn't even close to what real love is. Real love is this I feel for you. Real love is this that makes my heart beat faster every time we kiss. Princess, thanks to you all my wounds healed. Thanks to you I pulled myself together and decided I'd start over new. Thanks to you the hope I had lost is now back into my life_"

And despair…

"_Nightmares I wake you up from I hate because although you say the bad they do to you is nothing compared with the good I do to you, I know they hurt you and make you feel weak and uneasy. But nightmares you need me to wake you up from I also love because the look in your eyes as I rock you back to sleep tells me just how much you love me and need me, it tells me just how good you feel knowing I am there with you_"

And devotion…

"_Baby, you're my goddess. You're my religion. I worship the ground you walk on. With every breath I take, I worship you. Your body is my sanctuary and our lovemaking is my paradise_"

And purity…

"_The glow in your eyes while I made love to you… Never in all my life have I seen something so beautiful and so incredibly pure. Promise me you'll never close your eyes while I make love to you, while I touch all emotions inside of you, because that glow beautifies them even more. That glow my body could feed off of and I'd never need anything else_"

And worries…

"_I don't know how to live without you either. And I don't want to learn how, either. Never_"

And need all over again shinning there in their eyes during the brief seconds he holds her gaze and she holds his before what they both have been waiting for happens: skin to skin contact is made, that skin to skin contact that always gets them through the worst day or the worst nightmare or the worst of all possible situations. That skin to skin contact that is sweet yet searing. That skin to skin contact that reminds them that they're real and that they're alive and together.

He touches her, he caresses her face with the same tenderness she has come to know so well, with the same tenderness he caressed her that day three years ago at two in the morning and in the middle of a dark hallway, when she was tired and scared and needed his comfort more than any other thing in the whole world. Now, right now, his comfort she needs, yes, more than anything. His comfort is the only thing that will make her feel better, if the only thing that can make her feel better, even with a flood of bullets crashing through the hot air above their heads.

He caresses her face as he looks her in the eyes. He caresses her face and whispers to her:

"Are you okay?"

The answer comes in the shape of a weak but still audible sigh:

"Yeah"

And then, then he pulls her closer, or maybe she throws herself in his arms, it's difficult to tell. She wraps an arm around his neck and tries to kiss him, she tries to catch his lips with hers, but fails; her whole anatomy is uncontrollably shaking, shivers are sent up and down her spin and her vision is blurry, so she just collapses there and their faces collide: he gently yet firmly rubs his nose against hers like he always does in order to sooth her when she is feeling glum, and for a brief moment as their noses stroke one the other their lips crash, his against hers.

Then, then he pulls her closer or she throws herself in his arms – that can't be specified, it all happens really fast-, and she is in Heaven, in _her_ Heaven, her own private Heaven. A Heaven no one but her can access to. A Heaven made of him and all that he is, a Heaven that happens to be the safest place in the world for her, because there, there nothing can harm her, there pain is nonexistence and there worries leave her alone and in peace. There, only there she is safe, there and nowhere else. For her, only Tony protection can provide, only while being wrapped up in his embrace hurting fades away and uneasiness disappears.

There, kneeling on the ground with him by her side, her body finally admits defeat and she presses it up to his, wanting to feel him closer, wanting to be as close to him as she can get in these circumstances. They breathe each other in, as if they were trying to suffocate whichever remnants of fresh sad memories they have left in their minds torturing them.

She can't believe she's there. After all she went through today; she can't believe she is finally there, in his arms. She is in the safest place of the world and here she wants to stay forever. After having thought she would never be held by him again, after having believed she would never be comforted by him again, she is finally there, where she feels nothing but love and release.

She is home. She is in the safest place in the world, the safest place a human being could dream of or hope for.

Neither can control their own bodies anymore now. Need and relief are way too much stronger and take control over the situation. All he can do is drop kisses on every inch of her skin he can reach: her forehead, her cheeks, her lips. He kisses her all over her face again as if he were trying to make sure she is there with him, as if he were trying to make sure she is real, alive, safe and sound.

She buries her head in his chest, wanting to hide away from everything even if it is only for a short amount of minutes, wanting to feel protected, wanting to escape from the events of the last hours. She rests her head there, on his chest, and listening to his heartbeat – it's pounding faster and wilder than she's ever known before, she notices -, that heartbeat that always calms her down immediately. That heartbeat she listens to every night before she falls asleep. That heartbeat that with hers is synchronized, she listens to it and her muscles relax.

As he whispers in the ears of his princess that he loves her – in his voice all the tenderness, passion and desperation a human being could muster -, as he lifts her head up to kiss her all over the face every two seconds, as all the things they have ever said to each other play and replay and replay themselves in their minds, they silently thank to a God they are not sure if they believe in for being there, together.

Both their worlds are about to fall apart. Both their lives are about to become the worst nightmare they could possibly imagine. Both their lives are about to change, their lives as they know them are minutes away from going into a living Hell. Both their lives are about to shatter. But now, right now they are both where they want to be, where they are meant to be: each other's arms, where no harm can be done to them, where no pain can be felt and no problems haunt them.

The safest place in the world, there they are.

The safest place in the world, there she is.

The safest place in the world, there he wants to keep her forever and there forever she wants to stay.

What is going on right now or what will happen next, she doesn't care about. At this very moment, she couldn't care less. For an instant, just for a brief matter of seconds, she allows herself to forget about all American citizens, terrorist organizations, threats and viruses, Saunders and his men and the rest of the world that surrounds her. For a moment, just for a brief matter of seconds, she allows herself to take in what has just happened and where she is after all she had to go through during the course of such hellish day. And even if one could be more likely to find it impossible to believe, she feels a wave of bliss wash over her.

_Reviews make my day. If you liked this one-shot, let me know, and I'll write a sequel with Tony's point of view. _


End file.
